Practices Your Business Should Automate in 2020

Managers in today’s retail industry wear many hats. They are product specialists, salesmen and women, marketers, administrators and trainers for new employees. On top of all this, they handle day-to-day operations and keep track of multiple schedules. It sounds overwhelming right?

Automation can be the solution to reducing a number of smaller tasks and streamlining larger processes. 

These are the outdated practices that managers can automate in 2020. 

Project and Shift Scheduling

It’s easy to say that “paperless is better”. In our personal lives, we rely on our phones and computers to keep us on time, organized and have quick access to information, but it’s still common business practice to rely on paper project and shift schedules to keep employees informed.

Paper documents are fragile. They get spilled on, crumpled, torn, and lost under stacks of other important documents and binders. Sure, you try to keep them safe. You laminate them or place them in their own special folder, but when a change happens you cross things out, rewrite it, scribble in notes and end up with a messy, confusing document. Chances are you’ll start over, print a new one and probably lose the notes you had in the first place. 

Switching to digital project and scheduling solutions can break the cycle of misinformation, lost or ruined documents and get you and your team back on track and more efficient than ever. Embrace the cloud, go paperless, and give your store employees a solution that’s accessible from anywhere, on any device. 

Franchise Compliance & Field Visits

Data is a powerful tool in every industry, the ability to track and analyze sales results, product flow and inventory can tell you a lot about how each of your stores is performing and where they can grow. 

It’s important you rely on a system that supports your store managers and employee teams instead of drowning them in documents to be forwarded after the information has become useful. It’s time to transition to a multi-store management solution that automates the flow of information from individual stores to higher franchise managers. These systems typically sync inventory records across all locations, process interactions, and dig deep into store analytics. Many integrate with mobile devices so that your team members can check on inventory and conduct sales right in the palm of their hands. 

Upgrade to Reliable Solutions and Move Forward in 2020

Now is the time to ditch the papers, stow the binders and fully integrate your store operations through a single system. ActionCard is a brand standards software solution that drives consistency, quality and efficiency in your store operations.  

Gaining an edge in your industry requires many resources and approaches. The first you focus on should be creating efficiency within your store and branches with software that optimizes and streamlines the processes that work for your business. Use the guide above to review where your business can be automated in 2020.